Archive for December, 2009

2009 SEC Power Poll

All-SEC Team: Defensive Backs

Check out the Complete All-SEC Team at Team Speed Kills!

Well, due to a complete lack of judgment on the part of the SEC Power Poll brain-trust, Gate 21 has been selected to announce the Power Poll All-SEC Team selections at defensive back.   The following positions for the 2009 All-SEC team have already been announced:

• Alligator Army:  Quarterback
• Roll Bama Roll: Running Backs
• Hey Jenny Slater: Wide Receivers
• Team Speed Kills: Tight End

The rest of the positions are being announced today and tomorrow across the blogosphere.  In case you miss one, be sure to check in for the most up-to-date announcements over at Team Speed Kills.

The envelope, please…

The 2009 SEC Power Poll All-SEC Selections at Defensive Back are (in order of votes received): Eric Berry (Tennessee), Joe Haden (Florida), Javier Arenas (Alabama) and Mark Barron (Alabama). The reasons behind these should be obvious, but in case they aren’t here’s why these fine athletes are the cream of the crop:

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This is just a little too funny—especially the bit with the trolling motor.  Considering Bill Dance is never seen without his trademark web-back Tennessee hat, I figured it was appropriate to share it.

Video: Bill Dance’s Less Perfect Moments

Good times … good times

HT / via: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

Get more information on the SEC Power Poll at Team Speed Kills!

2009 All-SEC Football Selections

Well, I have been really lousy job lately at posting.  This has been due to a variety of things, none of which are of any importance to those of you out there in web-land who actually take the time to read the drivel that I produce.  Be that as it may, the brain-trust of the SEC Power Poll have joined together to, yet again, collectively select an All-SEC Football team for 2009.  Here is my ballot in all of its radiant glory:

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Okay, this pretty much sucks…

As the Vol Ambassador pointed out earlier today here on the Gate, according to the New York Times (which, as a general rule, avoids simply making stuff up), the NCAA is currently engaged in a wide-reaching investigation of recruiting at Tennessee under Lane Kiffin, with an emphasis on the use of the so-called “Vol Hostesses,” (with particular attention being paid to Hostess Lacey Earps), who routinely accompany recruits on visits to campus.  This investigation was confirmed by Mike Hamilton, though he declined to comment on the substance , and the UTAD has since issued an official statement.

The real interest appears to be trips taken by some of the Vol Hostesses to watch potential recruits play as high schoolers.  These visits, especially if they result in direct communications related to the recruiting of the athlete are potentially barred under NCAA regulations.  Times reporters Pete Thamel and Thayer Evans noted instances where Vol Hostesses had traveled as distance up to 200 or more miles to see recruits play, and had occasionally exchanged text messages with potential recruits.

As official representatives of the UT Athletic Department, contact by these Hostesses could lead to secondary violations, even if the contact was not sanctioned by athletic department officials.

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Ok.  So by now you’ve already experienced your mini-meltdown over the coaching changes.  If you’re anything like me, you probably went thermo-nuclear when you found out that not only is the NCAA “probing” (ha, I know) the situation with our hostesses, but that they’re contacting our recruits.  Fret not.  The rumor mill has produced the following information:

1.  Kiffin and staff were aware of this after the fact, but did not ask the hostesses to attend the game.

2.  The hostess at the center of the controversy is originally from South Carolina and went home with some of her friends for the weekend.  While there, they attended Lattimore’s game.  Apparently they’re facebook friends.

Irrespective of how this turns out, this is not a good development this late in the recruiting game.  Maybe I’m drinking the orange Kool-aid, but something about this isn’t right.  I get Wilson going to LSU and his comments recently should dismiss any notions of foul play there.  What I don’t like is that Gran left and the next day Luc commits to FSU, then Lattimore commits to SC and the NCAA comes knocking.  There are a lot of adjectives being thrown around the message boards to describe Gran, but I’m not sure what actually happened to him.  As far as I can tell, it was too hot in the kitchen for him. I’m ok with that.  I like the idea that our staff is too intense for some people.  Wes Rucker put it best in saying we have a great administration, a ton of money, and a hungry fan base.  Will be fine.

This thing with the hostesses, though, probably looks way worse than it really is.  Were the rules bent?  Maybe, maybe not.  Will there be another Kiffin rule passed in the offseason in response?  You bet.

Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 hosted by — as you might imagine — CBS Sports.

Week 15

Through 6 December 2009

Ahhh, 2009 college football regular season, we barely knew ye.  Yes friend and neighbors, here we are at the end of the regular season.  Thus, here is my final ballot for the 2009 regular season, the last ballot until after the completion of bowl season.  While I am sure some will disagree with some of my rankings, they are what they are: little more than my subjective assessment on the powers of college football.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here is is:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	–
2	Cincinnati	3
3	Texas	–
4	TCU	–
5	Ohio State	1
6	Boise State	1
7	Penn State	1
8	Oregon	1
9	Brigham Young	1
10	Virginia Tech	1
11	Georgia Tech	4
12	LSU	–
13	Florida	11
14	Miami (Florida)	3
15	Wisconsin	4
16	Oklahoma State	4
17	Nebraska	4
18	Iowa	3
19	Stanford	4
20	Utah	4
21	Pittsburgh	5
22	Central Michigan	NR
23	West Virginia	NR
24	Houston	6
25	East Carolina	NR
Last week’s ballot

Explanations after the jump…

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Gate 21 has received information from a reliable source that Jay Graham, former Vol running back during the the Reign of Peyton is currently interviewing for the running backs coach position left vacant by Eddie Gran.  Graham is currently making around $110,000 at South Carolina as their running backs and special teams coach.  Speculation is leading some to think that should UT choose to bring home the Graham-man, Hamilton would give Kiffin a little more room to operate to pursue Kippy Brown or Rob Ianello.

I know we’ve been slacking on covering the recent drama, but let me say a few things about Assistant-Gate:

1)  If Gran had something to do with Luc going to FSU, so be it.  We’ve got Michael Taylor and that boy is going to be an Al Wilson-grade stud.

2) If you put a gun to my head and told me I had to make Gran go to another school, I would say Florida State before you could finish the sentence.  Him being there is good for us because they play Florida every year and hardly ever play us.  A competitive Florida State (and for that matter, Miami) is good for us.  Also, the last time we played them, we walked away with a crystal football, so we’re good in my book.

3)  It’s good to have coaches in demand.  If another school wants one of our coaches, it means they recognize we’re doing something right.  This will also help us on the backside in recruiting new coaches in that UT can be a launching point.  I know a constant revolving door isn’t good for continuity, but I can assure you that the core of this staff (Kiffin, Orgeron, Monte) aren’t going anywhere and if Graham comes, he’ll probably join that group.

4) Graham is also recruiting well for South Carolina right now.  In light of some calls for Trooper to come back, Graham could be a deal to make everyone happy.

At the end of the day, how can you say no to a guy who did THIS to Bama?